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WhisperWhisper WhisperWhisper is an add-on for World of Warcraft that helps players keep track of private conversations. Inspired by two popular add-ons, SLDataText and Whisperfu, this add-on creates an extremely lightweight frame that acts as a mouse-over portal to 1-on-1 conversations. More importantly, the add-on can be significantly customized to aesthetically match any user interface by customizing colors, fonts, font sizes, and alerts. Why do players need help tracking their conversations? In World of Warcraft, there are several different chat channels that all appear in the same window. For example, there are zone-wide channels (so that everyone in a similar area can chat), trade channels (for players to buy and sell items), guild channels (for groups of players to congregate), and several others. With all of these firing in the same chat window, it can be hard to manage personal 1-on-1 conversations. WhisperWhisper solves this by creating an easy table-style layout in which players can quickly view their recent conversations. There are customizable alerts to ensure that players don't miss a new whisper. Additionally, WhisperWhisper uses the LibDataBroker library to directly integrate with several popular display add-ons. Previous add-ons have become extremely complex and difficult to use, while WhisperWhisper was designed to be intuitive. Early user testing for WhisperWhisper has shown that players are willing to switch to WhisperWhisper from other add-ons such as WIM and Cellular. Now, my primary aim is to market the add-on and make players aware of its existence. Originally, the project was an attempt to revive an abandoned project, WhisperFu. After examining WhisperFu, however, I found that a large amount of the code was outdated and unsalvagable. Instead, I created WhisperWhisper from scratch, aiming to help a wider player base. I am the sole designer and programmer for WhisperWhisper. The add-on was made using World of Warcraft's add-on programming language, Lua. WhisperWhisper uses several libraries, such as LibDataBroker LibQTip, and several WoWAce libraries. When designing this add-on, there were several unique challenges:        - Implementing WoWAce libraries to allow for integration and extensions.        - Creating customization options for aesthetics.        - Circumventing the default WoW Frame location and sizing functions.        - Filtering player whispers and RealID whispers into the same data structure. Download at Curse.com Download at WoWInterface.com Download Code Files MMO-Champion Discussion LootCouncil_Lite LootCouncil_Lite is an add-on for World of Warcraft that assists raiding guilds with loot council management. The add-on provides a secure user interface for guild officers to cast informed votes for loot decisions. While there are several add-ons that exist to assist with DKP or EPGP (two popular point based systems), this is one of the first mods that meets the needs of guilds using loot councils. In World of Warcraft, groups of 25 players attempt to kill bosses together. Whenever a boss is killed, there are usually 3-4 peices of gear that players can use to increase their character's abilities and stats. It can be challenging to divide up the gear in a way that all players see as fair. One of the systems that these groups use to divide up the gear is called "loot council," in which the leaders of the group vote on whom to award the gear. Many factors usually go into this decision, such as attendance (how often they raid), performance (how well they play the game), and size of upgrade (how much will it increase their stats). Usually, it is challenging for these councils to organize all of the data and make a decision. LootCouncil_Lite provides the organization so that the councils can make a decision faster and more objectively. Currently, LootCouncil_Lite is the most popular Loot Council add-on with over 1,000 downloads after just the first week. It's been featured on World of Raids, one of the most popular World of Warcraft fan sites. Additionally, there are discussion threads on several other fan sites such as MMO-Champion, Tankspot, and Elitistjerks. I am the sole designer and programmer for the add-on. The add-on was made using World of Warcraft's add-on programming languages, Lua and XML. Originally it started as a project exclusively for my guild, but after realizing the potential for a larger distribution, I started tweaking it. While the target audience is relatively small (guild leaders and officers using loot council), they still have a major need. When designing this add-on, there were several unique challenges:        - Coding host/client communication that maintained a secure voting atmosphere.        - Designing an interface that would fit in at low resolution.        - Creating customization options so that the mod could work with any loot council.        - Ensuring there were no security pockets, Lua errors, or other bugs at the release. Download at Curse.com Download at WoWInterface.com Download Code Files Elitistjerks.com Discussion "I have to give you credit. I was talking to a few guildmates last night about this addon and while my guild does not use LC anymore we all pretty much said the same thing. 'Why has it taken this long for a LC addon to be made'. Very nice work." - Cidic, World of Warcraft gamer "I absolutely love the addon and appreciate the work you've put into it. It's impressive thus far, and I'm quite impressed to see you quickly adding new suggested features and such." - Skryn, World of Warcraft gamer Raid Invite Organizer Raid Invite Organizer is a World of Warcraft add-on designed to assist guild leaders and raid leaders with the group invitation process. Normally, raid leaders must type /invite (player name) to send out an invite to the group. However, this can be really tiring and cumbersome for raid leaders, especially when you need to invite 24 or more people. While there have been several add-ons that help raid leaders automatically invite players, there has never been an add-on that gives leaders point-and-click or timer functionality. More importantly, no mod has ever given leaders the status of invites they send out. This mod was designed to change that. This mod offers two main methods for guild leaders and raid leaders to easily assemble raids. The first method is called "Guild Invitations," which lets leaders click on individual members that they want to invite. The list of members can be filtered by their rank in the guild to help leaders easily pick out who they want invited. Once they're ready to send out the invites, they simply need to hit the "Mass Invite" button. The mod will automatically start inviting individual players to the group and setting the group to its initial settings. The mod will also give leaders feedback on the status of invitations by visually showing who's in the raid (green checkmark), who's still pending (yellow question mark), and who has declined the invite (red x). The second method is through "Codeword Invitations." This has been a more traditional approach to raid invitations, placing the burden of getting an invite on guild members rather than the guild leaders. In this method, players send a private message to the raid leader containing the "codeword," and the add-on automatically sends that player an invitation to the group. Most add-ons that offer this functionality have predefined codewords. What separates Raid Invite Organizer from other add-ons is that leaders can customize their list of codewords. They can also configure the add-on to set a timer in which codewords are accepted, and to only allow guild members to whisper the codewords. The target audience for this add-on is fairly small: guild leaders and raid leaders. Many guild leaders and raid leaders had also found means of achieving similar goals prior to this add-ons release. Regardless, several hundreds of individuals have found this add-on very useful. I am the sole designer and programmer, using World of Warcraft's add-on programming languages, Lua and XML. When designing this add-on, there were several unique challenges:        - Localizing the add-on across languages.        - Creating a clean UI that keeps raid leaders up-to-date on the status of invites.        - Rapidly hooking and unhooking action listeners for raid setup and configuration.        - Ensuring there were no gaps in information, Lua errors, or other bugs at the release. Download at Curse.com Download at WoWInterface.com Codeword Invitations Screenshot Download Code Files Guild Inivitations Screenshot Main Configuration Screenshot Tower Wars Tower Wars is a 2-player RTS game that expands on the ideas implemented by the original Tower Defense Game. A constant stream of troops leaves each player's barracks in an attempt to destroy the enemy base. Players must chose to either upgrade their gold acquisition rate, upgrade their troops health, speed, or number, or construct/destroy towers. The player who first destroys the other team's base wins. Most Tower Defense games have a similar theme: waves of enemies try to attack your central base, and the player constructs towers that shoot at the enemies. Some towers have special abilities while other towers have stronger attacks. However, there is no offense in Tower Defense games, and as a result, players can often get easily bored with the game. As a huge fan of the RTS genre, I wanted to put some zing back into the original ideas behind Tower Defense. As a result, I created Tower Wars. Tower Wars is unique in that it creates a multiplayer experience in which the players can be competitive. Instead of competing to see who can build a better defense, players must make delicate decisions on whether to invest in more offensive or defensive power. There is a constant war that involves both players balancing the offensive front and maintaining a formidable defense. During the design and coding of Tower Wars, there were several unique challenges:        - Coding homing missiles on the target.        - Creating host/client communications across a LAN network.        - Balancing the Towers and Troop strength to provide fun and interesting gameplay.        - Allowing for multiple strategies for success rather than one "sure fire" win method. Download TowerWarsSetup.zip Download Code Files Download Concept PDF View Change/Version Log NOTE: Tower Wars is a 2-player ONLY game. Executable will not start without an active internet connection. Game won't start until 2 players on the same LAN network are connected and ready. Single-player mode is not yet available. Nth Dimension NthDimension is a puzzle game which challenges players' visuospatial skills and pathfinding abilities. Players control a ball and must find a path that gets them to the goal block. The goal is to continue ascend the dimensions until you can identify the last dimension, also known as the Nth Dimension. By utilizing dimension rifts and teleportation blocks, players must find the solution to each level. Originally, the Nth Dimension was designed as a way to research how people approach problems. The game automatically records several useful pieces of data, such as the amount of time the player uses to their first move, the number of "deaths" the player suffers, and the total time the player took to solve the puzzle. This data offered key insights as to how the player solved problems. In many cases, players would instantly start moving the ball to try to solve the puzzle. Usually, these players would incur a high number of deaths while a short overall time. Additionally, these players struggled more with the dimensional blocks than the teleportation blocks. Other players would sit and stare at the puzzle for a while before moving. Usually, these players would incur a low number of deaths while a higher overall time. These players usually struggled with the teleportation blocks more than the dimensional blocks. With the two separate genres of players, the game provides a unique challenge to every individual. Download NthDimensionSetup.exe Download Concept PDF Download Code Files